Ministers have no appetite to help the public

WHAT we got yesterday from this Government was a McBudget - a giveaway for property developers and the owners of fast-food chains. It's a budget that struggling households around the country will find hard to swallow.

- BY CIAN O'CALLAGHAN

This spending review awards multinational giants such as McDonald's and Starbucks millions in extra profits by reducing their VAT rate to 9%. Last year, McDonald's Ireland made a massive profit of €42million.

This is not a company that is struggling, unlike smaller independent hospitality businesses around the country that could have benefitted from more targeted supports.

Anyone examining this Budget would think that the cost-of-living crisis was behind us.

Try telling that to the parents choosing between eating and heating or to the more than 300,000 households in arrears with their electricity bills as they face into another winter.